Allentown, Pennsylvania
Allentown | ||
---|---|---|
Nickname : The Queen City | ||
Allentown, Downtown 2007 |
||
Location in Pennsylvania | ||
|
||
Basic data | ||
Foundation : | 1762 | |
State : | United States | |
State : | Pennsylvania | |
County : | Lehigh County | |
Coordinates : | 40 ° 36 ′ N , 75 ° 29 ′ W | |
Time zone : | Eastern ( UTC − 5 / −4 ) | |
Residents : | 118.032 (as of 2010) | |
Population density : | 2,571.5 inhabitants per km 2 | |
Area : | 46.5 km 2 (approx. 18 mi 2 ) of which 45.9 km 2 (approx. 18 mi 2 ) is land |
|
Height : | 103 m | |
Postcodes : | 18101, 18102, 18103, 18104, 18105, 18106, 18109, 18175, 18195 | |
FIPS : | 42-02000 | |
GNIS ID : | 1213700 | |
Website : | www.allentownpa.gov | |
Mayor : | Ed Pavlowski |
Allentown ( Pennsylvania Dutch : Allenschteddel ) is a city in Lehigh County in the east of the US state of Pennsylvania . Allentown is the third largest city in Pennsylvania after Philadelphia and Pittsburgh . Allentown is located on the Lehigh River and is the county seat of Lehigh County.
Billy Joel's song "Allentown", which appeared on his album "The Nylon Curtain" in 1982, is about Allentown and the neighboring city of Bethlehem , both industrial cities in decline (see: Rust Belt ).
history
The city was founded in 1762 under the name Northamptontown by William Allen . Deviating from its formal name, however, the place was known as Allen's Town after its founder from the beginning . The spelling Allentaun was also common among the immigrants from Germany, who published and read the newspaper Der Lecha Patriot there from 1848 to 1859 . The founder's original plan to build a trading center on the Lehigh River failed because the water level of the river was mostly too low. This disadvantage was later partially offset by the construction of the Lehigh Canal .
From September 1777 the Liberty Bell was temporarily stored in what is now Allentown , as it was feared that the British colonial power could melt it down in the course of the American War of Independence . She was brought back to Philadelphia in June 1778 .
The place, which officially got its current name in 1838, experienced an enormous boom in the iron industry in the 1850s and 1860s. It was produced especially for the rapidly growing rail network in the USA. This market later suffered considerably from the founder crash of 1873 ( Panic of 1873 ). The iron industry in Allentown got into turbulence, as a result of which more and more factories were closed and from which it no longer recovered. Instead, businesses in the textile industry, especially silk production, and the furniture industry settled in the city. Since the 1970s, the city has been struggling with the decline of the manufacturing industry and the resulting structural change .
economy
The companies Air Products & Chemicals and the energy supplier PPL have their headquarters in Allentown. Mack Trucks too until 2009 . Today the largest Mack factory is still in nearby Macungie .
The largest employers in 2017 were:
employer | Workers |
---|---|
Lehigh Valley Hospital | 3,614 |
Allentown School District | 2,560 |
Muhlenberg College | 2.141 |
Allied Personnel Services | 1,679 |
Lehigh County & Institutions | 1,666 |
Integrity Staffing Solutions | 1,585 |
Phoebe Home | 1,437 |
PPL | 1,308 |
Sacred Heart Hospital | 1,189 |
City of Allentown | 1,037 |
sons and daughters of the town
- Charlie Kunz (1896–1958), British swing pianist and band leader
- Flower A. Newhouse (1909–1994), Christian mystic and author
- Lee Iacocca (1924-2019), manager
- Ariel Cahill Hollinshead (1929–2019), cancer researcher and pharmacologist
- Sally Daley (* 1941), composer, church musician and organist
- Keith Jarrett (* 1945), jazz pianist
- Thomas Litz (* 1945), figure skater
- Denise Donatelli (* 1950), jazz singer
- Caren Diefenderfer (1952–2017), mathematician and university professor
- Rick Braun (* 1955), smooth jazz trumpeter and singer
- Chris Jarrett (* 1956), pianist and composer
- Joseph Atiyeh (* 1957), American-Syrian wrestler
- Eddie Metz junior (* 1958), jazz musician
- Brian Knobbs (born 1964), professional wrestler
- Jerry Sags (born 1964), professional wrestler
- Maria Wisser (* ≈1964), track cyclist
- Thom Browne (born 1965), fashion designer
- Marty Nothstein (* 1971), racing cyclist
- Christine Taylor (* 1971), actress
- Jessica Grieco (* 1973), racing cyclist
- Billy Kidman (born 1974), professional wrestler
- Pete Lisicky (born 1976), basketball player
- Michaela Conlin (* 1978), actress
- Nickolas Butler (* 1979), writer
- Amanda Seyfried (* 1985), actress and photo model
- Rich Wyman , singer-songwriter
- Dane DeHaan (* 1986), actor
- Kimberly Geist (* 1987), cyclist
- Lil Peep (1996-2017), rapper
Climate table
Allentown, Pennsylvania | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Climate diagram | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Monthly average temperatures and rainfall for Allentown, Pennsylvania
|
literature
- Edgar Sandoval: The New Face of Small-Town America: Snapshots of Latino Life in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania State University Press, University Park 2010, ISBN 978-0-271-06082-8 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ CHRONICLING AMERICA - Historic American Newspapers ( Library of Congress ), About Der Lecha Patriot. (Allentaun, Pa.) 1848-1859 (accessed: Aug. 11, 2014)
- ↑ a b Allentown City History. City of Allentown, accessed June 29, 2009 .
- ^ A Short History of the Liberty Bell's Trek and the Hiding of the Bells in Allentown. Liberty Bell Museum, archived from the original on January 7, 2005 ; accessed on June 29, 2009 .
- ^ Macungie Cab & Vehicle Assembly , at www.macktrucks.com , accessed December 24, 2015
- ↑ 2017 CAFR , accessed May 25, 2019